Proposal Generation in PDF

We have a requirement to generate quote proposal in PDF format. As an
alternative, we have performed the setup steps to generate the proposal in
word format and provided the password protection for the generated proposal.

However, our client has rejected this particular approach and they want the
proposal to be instead generated in PDF format. I have gone through the
document id mentioned below and now I am struck at the step that involves
plug in/API to convert the .doc to .pdf format.

Yes, I have implemented the same successfully for one of my clients. We used
adobe distiller to convert the word to PDF. The pre-requisites are you have
to install Adobe distiller in all the Siebel Server machines and that has to
be made as the default printer for the system user. This requires changes in
the registry to make it as default printer, which apparently I didn't
execute but was performed by the NT guys. The second thing is to add the
adobe distiller path in the Environmental variable so that the same can be
called using the run command.

The code was completely written in VB as I could find a way to run the
distiller command using eScript. The script will have two sections one to
convert the word file into a PS file and this PS file has to converted into
a PDF file. In script, you need to use the windows print option and select
the printer as Adobe writer to create the PS file and then run the distiller
with the PS file as the input which converts the PS file as a PDF.

I am using COM-Components provided by XPDF (XPDFPrint, XPDFSplice etc.) to generate and manipulate PDF files from within a Business Service. You can use either eScript or VBScript for this.

The biggest advantage is that the code in the Business Service controls every step of PDF generation and manipulation. You do not have to do any system calls for printing etc. The disadvantage is the licensing costs involved.

Hi Vinay,
You can't use COM objects on UNIX box. You may want to try Java Business service. Java has a wide range of API's to support PDF reading writing. Let me know if you need to more.
Thanks,
Vinay B L

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